Algeria intended to send a message to the United States and France s that Algeria can handle domestic terrorism.
The In Amenas Fiasco Throws Cold Water on the Algeria-U.S.-France Love Fest (Part One)
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War & Peace
Drones on Their Own at Home and Abroad
Drones are becoming simultaneously more fantastic and more ordinary at the same time.
Powering the Pacific “Pivot” With Leon and Chuck
It’s old, and likely thoroughly forgotten now, but last summer the Washington Post ran an excellent article on the U.S. military‘s “pivot” toward Asia, its origins, and its budget implications. It presented some meaningful background on where the pivot came from, and how it so quickly became dogma in Washington as the decade-long ground wars receded in the national rear-view mirror.
Who’s Degraded More: the Torture Victim or the Torturer?
Our national character is diminished in equal proportions to the degree to which our interrogation practices are “enhanced.”
Africa to the World: “Don’t Tell Us Who We Are or What To Do”
Africa will no longer accept being treated like a second-class continent.
Mali, France, and Chickens
Northern Mali stands poised to provide the working definition of a quagmire.
We Don’t Need a Secretary of Militarism
Right-wingers seem to view thoughtfulness as a character flaw.
Nuclear Weapons Are Not Only a Threat to Our Survival, But to Democracy Itself
Understanding the implications of nuclear weapons may be too much for us mere mortals.
The Pentagon as a Global NRA
In the U.S., the National Rifle Association (NRA), an ultra-powerful lobbying group closely allied with weapons-making companies, has a strong grip on Congress — it gives 288 members of that body its top “A-rating” — and is in a combative relationship with the White House. Abroad, it’s so much simpler and less contested. Beyond U.S. borders, the reality is: the Pentagon, with the White House in tow, is the functional equivalent of the NRA, and like that organization, it has been working tirelessly in recent years in close alliance with major weapons-makers to ensure that there are ever less controls on the ever more powerful weaponry it wants to see sold abroad.
Is Hagel’s Appointment of Any Actual Use to the Anti-War Left?
But standing up to AIPAC, the defense industry (and members of Congress accountable to them) and the still-powerful neocons makes the Hagel appointment a good move for Obama.